Gerrymander hides an animal!

Did you know that the word GERRYMANDER is an animalogy? It’s a combination of Gerry—named after the governor who 1st redrew districts in his favor— and Salamander because of the shape of the newly drawn district on the map.

WordHistory:In 1812, as governor of Massachusetts,Elbridge Gerrysigned a billauthorizingtherevision of votingdistricts in his state.Members of Gerry’spartyredrewthem in order to secure theirrepresentation in thestatesenate,andout of Gerry’shome county,EssexCounty,theycarved an unlikely-lookingdistrictwith theshape of a salamander.According to oneversion of thecoining of gerrymander,theshape of thedistrictattractedtheeye of the painterGilbertStuart,whonoticed it on a map in a newspaper editor’soffice.Stuartdecoratedtheoutline of thedistrictwith ahead,wings,andclawsandthensaid to theeditor,“Thatwill do fora salamander!”“Gerrymander!”camethereply.Theimagecreated by Stuartfirstappeared in theMarch26,1812,edition of theBostonGazette,where it wasaccompanied by thefollowingtitle: TheGerrymander. A NewSpecies of Monster,whichappeared in theEssexSouthDistrict in Jan.1812.Thenewwordgerrymander caught on instantly—withinthesameyeargerrymander is also recorded as a verb.(Gerry’sname,incidentally,waspronounced with a hard(g)sound,althoughthewordwhichhasimmortalized him is nowcommonlypronouncedwith a soft(j)sound.)Gerryran forreelection in 1812,andpopularoutragedirected at theflagrant use of thetechnique we nowcallgerrymanderingdoubtlessplayed a role in hisdefeat.

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